


Apprehension

by marleymars



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Fluff, M/M, That is all, and whatever, armin being an anxious mess and irwin making dumb jokes, dumb title is dumb, i'm too tired to think up a better one
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-01-23
Updated: 2014-01-23
Packaged: 2018-01-09 17:14:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,010
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1148692
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/marleymars/pseuds/marleymars
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Armin is nervous about introducing Irwin to his parents.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Apprehension

**Author's Note:**

> Some short, g-rated fluff writing warm-up majiggy because my brain is very buttish and writer’s blocky r/n. (this is not the same universe at Attachment Theory.)

Armin’s parents’ house was the very picture of classic white-picket-fence suburbia. The lawn was perfectly maintained, not a blade out of place. There was a swing on the front porch, framed around a blue door, and the façade was interspersed with picture windows, and trim the same color as the door, though the house overall was white. There was even a trellis visible around the side of the house, crawling with creeping rose vines and flowers that Irwin imagined were pink. It was hard to know for sure in the early evening darkness.

The house was lit up with a warm, welcoming interior glow, and he could see shadows moving behind curtains. Altogether, he thought it radiated hospitality, but Armin was staring past him through the driver’s side window with an expression of complete trepidation. If he hadn’t been sitting there like that for several minutes, Irwin would have chalked it up to simple nervousness.

“You alright?” he finally asked, after giving the younger man an extra moment to contemplate the situation.

Armin gave him a startled look, as if he’d forgotten Irwin was there, which was amusing considering the older man was the one who’d driven that night. “Not really,” he admitted, slouching back into his seat with a cathartic noise. “I’ve never brought a guy home to meet my parents.” This was not new information, but the anxious way Armin began chewing on his lower lip reiterated how big a deal this meeting was to him.

“Have you told them anything about me?” Irwin asked, keeping his tone level but appropriately gentle.

“A little,” Armin said, “Not as much as I should have.” He glanced out the window on his side, staring across the street at a passing jogger. “I told them you were older than me, and that you’re a professor, but I didn’t say _how_ much older or that you were _my_ professor, and that we were dating while I was still in school.” He dropped his face into his hands with a groan.

“Do they know I’m a man at least?” Armin lifted his head met his teasing look with a withering glare. “Just asking,” the older man said, raising his hands in mock surrender.

“Well, don’t worry, they know I like boys,” Armin said with a roll of his eyes, “But like I said, I’ve never introduced them to someone I was dating. My mom is always asking me about it, though. Sort of almost _too_ much, like she’s trying too hard to be supportive. And my dad tries, but he gets so obviously uncomfortable when the subject comes up that I feel like I’m rubbing my gayness in his face.”

“If it gets to be too much you can always rub your gayness in _my_ face,” Irwin suggested with a waggle of his eyebrows, and Armin made a rude noise and shoved a hand against his shoulder.

“You’re a bastard,” he grumbled. “Do you want to meet my parents, or do you want to sit here all night making dumb jokes?”

“I want to meet your parents,” Irwin assured him, reaching up to stroke a thumb against the younger man’s chin. “But if you think my jokes are dumb, we might have to have a serious talk about our relationship. That attitude’s not going to fly when we’re married.”

Armin blanched, and moaned in despair, burying his face in his hands again. “Oh God, please don’t mention the M word tonight,” he pleaded, voice muffled.

“My lips are sealed,” Irwin said. He reached over to wrap an arm around the younger man’s shoulders, drawing him as close as the center-console allowed.

He felt Armin sigh against him, and lean heavily into his side. “I’m sorry it took me this long to work up the nerve to bring you home with me,” he murmured, “I’m gonna have a hard enough time worrying about whether or not they think you’re taking advantage of me somehow, without also announcing that I agreed to marry your sorry butt.” His words were sincere despite the obvious edge of annoyance, begot by nerves. He was silent for a moment before adding. “I don’t know if I could take it if they don’t approve of us.”

Irwin leaned back a bit, and reached for his chin again, tilting his head up so the younger man had to look him in the eye. “If they don’t, that doesn’t change anything,” he said, “I’m not going to break up with you because your parents don’t like me.”

“I know,” Armin said, touching the back of his hand, closing his slender fingers around it, “But I care what my parents think, and I just really want them to like you.”

“Well then, I shall do my utmost to impress,” Irwin promised. He leaned down to kiss the younger man between his eyebrows, and Armin scrunched his face up in an expression of mock disgust.

“If things go bad you could just launch into one of those boring history lectures of yours and put them to sleep,” he teased.

“If my lectures were so boring, then why were you always front and center every single class, with that look of rapt attention on your face?”

“I was staring at your butt.”

“Touché,” Irwin said with a smirk. He leaned down to press a kiss to his fiancé’s mouth, pushing into the gesture insistently. Armin allowed it for a few moments, grinning against his lips and curling a hand into his shirt.

“Alright, alright. Enough of that before my mom sees us and tries to take a picture,” he said, pulling back and looking much less anxious than before. “Let’s go inside.” He turned and opened his door, pausing halfway out of the car when he felt Irwin’s hand on his arm.

“I love you, you know,” he said, squeezing gently.

Armin snorted, but he beamed back at the older man over his shoulder, and said, “I love you, too.” And he knew that whatever happened tonight, whatever his parents thought, that he always would.

**Author's Note:**

> Well, there it is. *rolls away*


End file.
